Space Party

This weekend sees the celebration of Cosmonautics Day in Russia and the 8th Annual ‘Yuri’s Night’, which celebrates the anniversary of both the first time a human was launched into space (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961) and the first Space Shuttle Launch (in 1981). ‘Yuri’s Night’ aims to raise global public interest in space exploration and inspire a new generation of space explorers all over the world. Space travel and exploration has come a long way in the past 47 years and here are some records to show this:

Longest solo spaceflight
The longest duration spaceflight with a single person on board was the flight of Vostok 5, piloted by Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky. It was launched on 14 June 1963 and landed on 19 June 1963 with a total mission elapsed time of 4 days 23 hr 7 min.

Longest mission by a space suit
On 3 February 2006 Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and U.S. astronaut Bill McArthur jettisoned an old Russian Orlan M spacesuit from the International Space Station. Equipped with a transmitter, 'SuitSat-1' broadcasted nearly 3,500 radio messages and data on the temperature inside the suit which were picked up by amateur radio operators on Earth. The last transmission from SuitSat-1 was received on 18 February 2006, shortly before its onboard battery became depleted.

Most spacewalks by one person
The greatest number of spacewalks is ten, totalling 31h 37m by Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov (b. 15 Feb 1944) during Soyuz TM-8 (launched 5 Sept 1989 - the five spacewalks took place in Jan/Feb 1990) and Soyuz TM-17 (launched 1 July 1993 - the five spacewalks took place in Sept/Oct 1993).

Most time spent in space
The most time spent in space by an individual is 803 days 9 hours and 39 minutes, by Sergei Krikalev (Russia). He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1985 and has since completed six spaceflights. His most recent flight, as commander of the International Space Station, began on 14 April 2005 and ended on 10 October 2005.

Earliest commercial filmed in space
An advertising campaign for Tnuva Milk, showing cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev drinking milk aboard the Russian Mir space station, was broadcast on 22 August 1997.

source: Guinness World Record